A pub barman raped a 16-year-old girl twice at knifepoint after tying her hands together with her own shoelaces, a court has been told.

Stephen Potter, 35, of Olive Road, Hove, is accused of raping the girl after spending the evening with her father drinking vodka and smoking cannabis, Lewes Crown Court heard yesterday.

The court heard the man raped the girl once while she was tied up in the courtyard of a block of flats after forcing her out of the flat where she was with her father.

He is then alleged to have raped her a second time on a bench in a shelter by Hove Lagoon after marching her down the esplanade towards Portslade with the knife pressed against her side.

The court heard how he pretended they were a couple by pulling her close to him and kissing her as they walked down the seafront in the early hours of the morning on October 15 last year.

Potter denies one count of kidnapping and two counts of rape.

Christine Laing, prosecuting, said the girl met Potter for the first time at The Bell pub in Mile Oak.

The girl, who gave evidence to the court via a live video link up, said she was drinking lemonade in the pub and decided to leave with Potter for another pub.

She said after the pub closed they went to a flat and she drank four or five swigs of lager and shared a cannabis joint.

She told the court Potter told her he was leaving to go home in the early hours of the morning and asked her if she would show him to the front door downstairs in the lobby.

She said: "We were standing at the bottom front door and he was standing with his back to me going out the door."

She said Potter grabbed her when they went back upstairs to call a taxi.

Christopher Sallon, defending, said the girl instigated the kissing and consented to sex.

He said: "It was you who suggested going round to the back of the houses where the courtyards were.

"As you went along you were pressing close to him."

He asked her why she didn't shout for help when Potter grabbed her at the door of her father's flat.

She said: "Would you with a knife in your face?"

The trial continues.